ards till he had the can about half full of bait, with a
little dirt thrown on top. Then he reached up under the eaves of the
smoke-house and pulled out a long cane pole with a line and hook and
floater on it, all rigged up ready, and flung it over his shoulder and
started.

Mr. Rabbit walked pretty fast--even lazy folks do that when they go
fishing, and Mr. Jack Rabbit wasn't lazy, by a good deal. So pretty soon
he came to the Hollow Tree, and there, looking out of an upstairs
window, he saw the 'Coon, the 'Possum and the Old Black Crow.

"Hello, up there!" he said. "Don't you fellows want to go fishing?"

Mr. 'Possum said he thought fish would bite well on such a morning, and
that he'd like to go first rate. Mr. 'Coon said he knew a place where
you could pull them out as fast as you could throw in your hook, and he
went on and told how he caught a fish there last year that would weigh
more than four pounds, and lost him just as he got him to the top of the
water. Mr. Crow said he'd always noticed that Mr. 'Coon's four pound
fish never got any nearer to him than the top of the water, and that for
his part he didn't care much about fishing. He said, though, that if the
'Coon and the 'Possum wanted to go he'd stay at home and get dinner
while they were gone, so's to have it ready when they all came home
hungry. He told them that he had some nice canned salmon in the cupboard
that he could catch most any time, and that if they really wanted fish
for dinner he s'posed he might as well open it. Then they all laughed,
and in about a minute down came Mr. 'Coon and Mr. 'Possum with their
fishing things. Jack Rabbit said he had plenty of bait, so away they
went. Mr. Crow sat up in the window and watched them off, and Mr. Robin,
who happened along just then, laughed and called after them that he'd
take a few pounds of nice bass when they got home. The Robin just said
that to plague them, of course, and Mr. 'Coon called back that they'd
fool him this time, and then he went on to remark to the 'Possum and
the Rabbit that he'd never in his life seen a finer day for fishing.

Jack Rabbit said yes, that it was fine, and that it was a fine day for
Mr. Dog to be out gallivanting over the country, too, and that they'd
better hurry up and get to the lake and out in his boat before anything
happened. That made Mr. 'Possum take a good deal livelier step, though
he commenced to whistle and said he wasn't afraid of Mr. Dog, anyway.
Mr. 'C